cash. the answer here, hold tight. if your portfolio is balanced. we all know something is going to happen on tuesday if this doesn't we don't know what. what the analyst here is saying, if things go back up and you pull out, you're really just playing a guessing game of when you should get back in. an interesting story on cnnmoney.com. what are consumers complaining about now? believe it or not, a couple new categories. one are group coupon deals like groupon, saying the rules are a little hard to understand, some of the guidelines are a little too strict, also wireless television, like apple tv and google tv, contracts not so clear on exactly what services people will be getting. back to you. >> carter, we'll check in with you again on monday morning. carter evans at the nasdaq marketsite. "american morning" starts right now. >> no vote on the debt plan again. i'm christine romans. as the u.s. economy lurches closer to a financial crisis,

the political crisis continues. house speaker john boehner calls off a vote, unable to convince hardline conservatives in his party to sign on to his plan. >> i'm kiran chetry. more than 90% of texas is now in extreme drought. the state could sure use a lot of rain and now tropical storm don is expected to make landfall along the southern coast today. >> and it's happened again, a muslim-american soldier in police custody for allegedly plotting to kill fellow soldiers at ft. hood. a live report from texas on this "american morning." good morning. it is friday, july 29th. this is "american morning." a lot going on to get you caught up today. it's interesting there's a report from credit suisse that says if the u.s. were to default, u.s. stocks would fall 30% over six months to a year showing you just how serious this is for your investments. we're already seeing signs of strain in the financial markets in terms of companies pulling

money out of some instruments that could -- showing, you know, trouble in the lending market. >> the big question is, will washington let that happen, and right now that answer is not any clearer than it was yesterday morning. we begin with breaking news, though. this titanic struggle that's continued to go on right now to end the debt crisis before next tuesday's deadline. here's a live look at the capitol where overnight, infighting among republicans forced house speaker john boehner to yank his debt bill. they thought there was going to be a vote last night. there is hope he will try to pass it again today. in four hours the speaker will again sit down with fellow republicans and again try to entice just a handful of hardline conservatives to fall in line. >> the bill's not perfect. i never said it was perfect. nobody in my caucus believes it's perfect. but what this bill reflects is a sincere, honest effort to end this crisis in a bipartisan way

to send it to the senate where it can receive action. >> now the speaker's bill would cut $900 billion from the budget over ten years in exchange for a short six month extension of the debt ceiling. the conservatives are angry the cuts don't go deeper. >> we want to make sure we never get here again. i want to support something that makes sure we never get here again. >> the deal that is on the table makes the hole deeper and so don't -- you shouldn't expect people who believe we should balance the budget to vote for a deal that makes the hole deeper. >> i can't support this plan. i would love to be able it to support speaker boehner, leader cantor. i have to have something that transcends election cycles. i can't support it. >> senate majority leader harry reid is blaming the tea party which is quickly bringing the government to the edge of a disastrous default in which treasury may not be able to pay all of its bills. >> the white house is warning

even if the speaker's bill does make it through the house it it's expected to die in the senate. >> spending hour after hour here waiting for the republicans to twist arms for a vote that is essentially irrelevant because as soon as they pass it, if they are able to, the senate will vote it down and we'll have to get back to the table and get something done. >> all right. also this morning, as the debt -- nation's debt continues to mount amid all of this, right up there, very, very close to $14.294 trillion debt limit. as that mounts so does the anger across the nation. you're paying the price for what has become an ugly partisan battle. over the past five consecutive days the dow has dropped a total of 484 points. and i'm telling you this morning, you have futures lower again, that's a problem for the market today. we're going to have a gdp report later today that's likely to show the economy is slowing and frankly, not growing as we would have liked, growing less than 2% and you have grave concerns

about what this is going to mean for companies who are just sitting there on their cash not making any decisions because they don't like this uncertainty. that means jobs. >> and there are also large concerns as well, just for everyday folks sitting at home, does this mean that my social security check or my benefits check, my disability check is not coming come august 3rd and that's quite a reality here. the u.s. is racing toward that debt deadline. a lot of americans want to know what's going to happen. what about the 401(k)s, the car loans, mortgage rates and there are a lot of seniors worried about cuts to the programs that they depend on every day. we're talking about medicare, medicaid as well as social security. >> i worked years and years to save money to live off when i become a senior. what do i have to look forward to now? >> i think i would like to see all of them have to trade places with us. and let them try and live on what we don't have and what they're trying to even cut more of. >> now the social security

administration's response to the questions about what will happen to the debt ceiling, if -- what will happen if the debt ceiling is not raised is short and not very comforting. this is the quote. we're sorry, but we don't know. right now it's still unclear if the debt ceiling will be raised by august 2nd, so the administration is preparing for plan b. one of those options, a pair of trillion dollar coins. our mary snow explains in less than 20 minutes right here on "american morning." the uprising in syria appears to be gaining steam. opposition leaders say they're planning massive protests with the holy month of ramadan starting in three days. a demonstration in the city of ha ma and we're told more will follow every night with the hope that opposition forces will be able to wear down, finally, the syrian government. in cairo, tahrir square is heating up again. today has been declared a friday of unity in egypt. protesters marching in the heart of cairo demanding military speed up reforms now that president mubarak has been

ousted from office. they go on trial wednesday for plotting to kill hundreds of anti-government protesters. in less than an hour norway's prime minister will be joining hundreds of grieving relatives at a memorial service in central oslo. honoring the victims of last week's bombing and massacre that left 76 people dead. the service was organized by the youth movement. 68 of their friends were slaughtered at the group's summer camp outside of oslo. a suspect in those attacks, anders breivik, will face a second round of questioning today by police. he'll also be evaluated by psychologists. breivik has been in solitary confinement since monday. police say they've uncovered a lot of new leads in the last few days and make sure there is no further threat. it's happened again. another plot to kill soldiers at ft. hood uncovered by texas police and it looks like this one was foiled just in time. >> this is an amazing story. an awol muslim-american army private is in police custody this morning. by all accounts he he was close

to pulling off a massacre at a military base that's still reeling from the 2009 attack that took 13 lives. ed lavender ra is live in killeen, texas. the similarities between the 2009 tragedy and this plot are pretty striking and scary. >> absolutely frightening. you can imagine the ft. hood community, many of these people live here in the town of killeen just off the army post and this is a soldier naser abdo, a private first class, known to the military community. for the last year he had been going through this process of getting conscientious object ter status. said he couldn't fight against muslims anymore. on july 4th started facing child pornography charges and then he went awol and turned up here in what the authorities say had to be a frightening plot. >> so springfield xd. >> reporter: from the moment greg ebert set eyes on nasr ab bowe, he said something didn't

seem right. >> he shows up here in a taxicab. how many people go shopping at gun stores in a taxicab. >> reporter: the army private spent about 20 minutes inside the guns galore gun shop in killeen, texas. he said private abdo acted guarded and asked odd questions. >> he selects six canisters, brings them to the counter, sets them down, and that's when he asked kathy what is smoke [ inaudible ]. hello. why are you buying this if you don't know what it is? >> reporter: ebert says abdo then spent almost $250 on a handgun magazine, three boxes of shotgun shells, and six pounds of smokeless gun powder. >> rang it up, he paid cash, took his bag and left without the receipt or his change. >> reporter: left without his change? >> yeah. wasn't much, like 18 cents, 20 cents. >> reporter: ebert is a retired 20-year law enforcement veteran. it was that old cop's hunch that convinced him to report the suspicious customer to local police.

within 24 hours, officers hunted him down and say they unraveled his horrifying and deadly plan. >> we have interviewed him and have the information as a result of that other leads we're following up on. >> during the interview -- >> let me finish my statement. that leads us to believe that military target personnel was targeted. >> reporter: but police say this attack wouldn't have occurred inside ft. hood like the deadly massacre in 2009 where major nadal hassan, allegedly gunned down 13 soldiers. instead, authorities say abdo planned on attacking soldiers in popular gathering spots around killeen outside ft. hood. >> how close was he to pulling this off? >> that's a good question, and i can tell you that we would probably be here today giving a different briefing had he not been stopped. >> reporter: law enforcement sources it tell cnn bomb making materials were found in abdo's room inside this killeen, texas, hotel. another source says islamic

extremist literature was found in his backpack. ft. hood is still reeling from the deadly mass ker two years ago and greg ebert could not think about what happened this time if he had not called police. >> i would be devastated, especially considering i might have played some role in someone being injured, seriously injured or killed, that would be very unsettling. >> reporter: for now, private first class abdo is being held here at the jail at the killeen police department. but we're told to expect federal charges that will be filed against him, perhaps at some point today. back to you guys. >> was he on the radar at all in terms of military authorities? you know, as we know in the wake of the 2009 ft. hood shooting a lot of people said there were missed warning signs and, perhaps, even people turning a blind eye out of fear of not being politically correct? >> i mean, obviously him going through that process of conscientious objector status, that, you know, put them -- put

him highly on the radar of military authorities and, obviously, when the other criminal charges came forth against him near fort campbell, kentucky, where he had been stationed and he went awol on july 4th, clearly over the course of the last several weeks, a lot of military officials had been wondering where he might be. of course unsuspecting he would turn up here in killeen. >> wow. ed lavandera for us this morning, thanks so much. here's some big medical news out this morning from the maker of tylenol, reducing the maximum daily dosage of the pain reliver to lower the risk of any accidental overdose. beginning in the fall, labels on extra strength tylenol packages will list the maximum dose as six pills. that's down from eight. johnson & johnson also plans to lower the daily dose on regular tylenol and other adult products containing acetaminophen in 2012. new jersey governor chris christie will be back at work after a health scare. he was taken to a hospital emergency room yesterday. he suffered apparently an asthma

attack while on his way to a bill signing ceremony. >> i took the rescue inhaler that i have, didn't have the effect it normally has and i started to feel lightheaded and spoke to the troopers and said i wasn't feeling well, apparently didn't look all that well and they -- we both decided that we should get me some place quickly. >> the governor was discharged after a battery of tests all came back normal. christi has been losing hard to lose weight, the lighter i am, the healthier i will be, exercising trying to eat right. clearly a scare on the asthma front for him yesterday. he's back to work today. it is a marriage of two of america's favorite foods. or is it a collision? either way, homer simpson is smiling. >> forbidden doughnut.

>> homer, stop picking at it. >> but i'm so sweet and tasty. >> here's what we're talking about. the big kahuna doughnut burger unveiled at the state fair in syracuse. a quarter pounder burger in between two slices of glazed doughnuts. >> are you kidding me? >> you're from iowa. you know state food. >> this is shocking. >> with burger in between, add cheese, lettuce, tomato and onions and it's 1500 calories of sweet salty meaty doughy happiness. >> you know that looks good, ali. >> it looks disgusting. >> as you know i don't have a particular or refined palate but that worries me. >> same thing as a bun but happens to be sweet. >> sweet and deep fat fried. >> i don't know that it has the structural integrity that a bun needs when eating a hamburger. >> i need sesame seeds on my bun. >> our question of the day. it's friday, so don't give us any grief about this question.

>> otherwise we're going to ask you a question about the debt ceiling. >> which, of course, i wanted to do but we had a fight about it. what is your craziest food combination. send us an e-mail, tweet, tell us on facebook. we will be reading some of your comments later in the program. >> i will try all of these. keep them coming. >> you too can because of your fabulous metabolisms. >> you can try them too. >> me i gained half a pound looking at that. >> reading the story you gained. tropical storm don, making its way towards the texas coast. for many farmers and ranchers in the lone star state it can't get there fast enough. they've been dealing with a bad, bad brought drought. >> tiger woods announcing his return to the pro golf tour after three months away. when and where tiger will be teeing up. >> you might want to think twice before taking the soft fluffy hotel towels home with you. i'll tell you why. they're watching you and you're watching us. it's "american morning." we're back in just a couple mind. -- minutes.

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with all the essential nutrients your growing puppy needs. purina puppy chow. welcome back to "american morning." happening right now here at home, tropical storm don gaining strength as it moves across the

gulf of mexico with an eye on the south texas coast, folks. preparations under way along the shore for don, which could make landfall in texas tonight, bringing with it some pretty heavy rain. >> the last part is welcome news in the drought-stricken lone star state. rob marciano is live in padre island in texas. this is kind of a delicate thing. they need the rain clearly. they don't want a hurricane. what is it looking like, rob? >> oh, at this point yeah, there's a lot of cheerleading going on in texas. we're wanting don to get here. it's a double-edge sword. we want it to come as strong enough storm where it brings us beneficial rain but not so strong to where it does damage along the coastal communities and certainly the ones that are very dependent on tourism and these beach communities are certainly packed. the surf behind me has picked up in the last 12 hours, but no rain, no wind, and we don't really expect that for a good six, maybe ten hours from now. here's the latest on don. it is still a tropical storm. take a look at the satellite

picture. we have a couple issues working against us. one, some dry air between here and don will limit its intensification and the at moss fear not set up as well as we would like it to blow up. a lot of warm water, temperatures in the gulf, 86, 87, some cases 88 degrees water temperature. that's fuel for the fire. we'll see what don does in the next 12 hours. it should be here making landfall somewhere around midnight tonight. here's the forecast track for the national hurricane center. the track itself has shifted somewhat to the south, expected to make landfall between here and brownsville, later on tonight through the early part of saturday morning. most likely, as a moderate to strong tropical storm. so there's the good news there. we don't expect it to become a monster hurricane at this point. but we do need the rain. here's the drought situation. across the entire lone star state, some staggering numbers and many of those cases, they are 60 to 70% down from where they should be.

san antonio is a foot below normal as far as the rainfall is concerned. houston, over 16 inches the rainfall deficit this year. and austin, seeing almost a foot below average. let's see what the computer models are saying as far as how much rainfall we'll get from this system. not as much as we would like, unfortunately, at this point. two to three, maybe four inches, anywhere from houston to brownsville as this thing comes onshore. we need more than that. at this point, guys, a lot of cheer leading going on, prep, local communities have evacuated, some businesses have closed and doing things like clearing drain pipes because drain pipes in this area haven't been used in so long because it hasn't rained in so long. they're actually preparing in a good way for this rain to get here which is expected to arrive later on this afternoon and tonight. guys? >> thanks rob. rob marciano in padres island in texas. big news from the sporting world. >> is it big news? sorry? >> deja vu big news from the sporting world what i meant to say.

tiger woods announcing his return to the pga tour. it does feel like we reported this news before, doesn't it? feeling fit and ready to tee it up at firestone country club in akron, ohio where he had his worst tournament as a pro finishing 18 over par. he hasn't played competitive golf since may when he withdrew because of injuries. >> good luck to him. my friends in akron call it akron. >> do they? >> still to come, officials are trying to scramble to come up with plan b. there is a plan b about the debt ceiling debate. one of the ideas involves trillion dollar coins. want to stick around and hear about that. 22 minutes past the hour.

minding your business this morning. right now stock futures are trading lower ahead of the opening bell. a big day on wall street today. investors are sorting through a whole lot of economic data. earnings reports are waiting for news on the debt ceiling debate in washington. stocks have been down for five days now on concerns that the deal won't get done. treasury department officials telling cnn that executives from 20 major banks are meeting with treasury officials today at the federal reserve building in manhattan. topping the agenda, the debt ceiling and potential fallout if a deal is not reached in time. and wall street executives very nervous about the debt deal debate in washington. a report from credit suisse says u.s. stocks could tumble 30% over the next six months to a year if the debt ceiling is not raised in time and the u.s. were to default. now credit suisse saying they think that's unlikely but that's

how much it would fall if nothing happens here. several of wall street's top ceos sent a letter to president obama and congress yesterday urging swift action this week or face grave results in the nation's debt ceiling talks. one of the world's most profitable companies oil giant chevron expected to report its second quarter earnings this morning before the opening bell. health care company merck expected to report its profit in the next three hours. the big biz story a major economic indicator second quarter gdp that releases in about two hours from now, 8:30 a.m. eastern time. economists surveyed say the economy grew at about 1.8%. that's slowing slightly from the bri previous quarter and 1.8% is not enough to improvement the unemployment rate. later today the obama administration expected to announce a new round of tougher fuel economy standards for cars and trucks. those new rules will require that vehicles sold in 2025 average about 55 miles per gallon. that's double the current

levels. don't forget for the very latest news about your money check out the all new cnnmoney.com. "american morning" will be back after this quick break. i don't always have time to eat like i should. and the more i focus on everything else, the less time i have to take care of me. that's why i like glucerna shakes. they have slowly digestible carbs to help minimize blood sugar spikes, which can help lower a1c. glucerna products help me keep everything balanced. [ golf clubs clanking ] [ husband ] i'm good! well, almost everything. [ male announcer ] glucerna. delicious shakes and bars. helping people with diabetes find balance. vietnam, 1967. i got mine in iraq, 2003. u.s.a.a. auto insurance is often handed down from generation to generation, because it offers a superior level of protection and because u.s.a.a.'s commitment to serve the military, veterans, and their families is without equal. begin your legacy. get an auto insurance quote.

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30 minutes past the hour right now. no vote, at least not yet. house speaker john boehner working through the night, not able to get enough of his fellow republicans to vote for a debt ceiling deal. so what happens next? we'll talk about it on this "american morning." good morning. it is friday, july the 29th. you're looking live pictures of the capitol in washington, d.c., inside house speaker john boehner will try to rally support for his debt plan again today. it was supposed to happen last night, didn't. welcome back to "american morning." lot going on. let's get right to it. >> all right. time running out, house speaker john boehner hoped to bring his

debt ceiling plan to a vote last night. it didn't happen. the vote was called off after it appeared speaker boehner was having some trouble rounding up gop votes. but the house speaker is pressing ahead this morning. >> yeah. in just a few hours he will again meet with some of the conservatives who have been unhappy with the plan so far, some last-minute arm twisting taking place. >> the bill's not perfect. i never said it was perfect, nobody in my caucus believes it's perfect. but what this bill reflects is a sincere, honest effort to end this crisis in a bipartisan way, to send it to the senate where it can receive action. >> all right. now, a vote on boehner's plan could take place again today, but even if it does, the speaker's plan makes it out of the house. senate majority leader harry reid has promised the bill will not make it into the senate. he wants to replace it with his own plan to raise the debt

ceiling limit. >> harry reid may have a plan waiting in the wings but the truth is he doesn't have the votes he needs to pass it either. last night on cnn's "john king usa" democratic senator joe mansion of west virginia explained why he's not only against the republican plan, but he's also against the democratic plan. >> we have two plans short and shorter and we have to fix it for the long term. i think it's been pretty well mapped out, we need a $4 trillion swing to get us a downward glide to get this financial house of ours in order. i want to see a guaranteed vote. if we're going to do and raise the debt let's make sure we have a guaranteed vote to fix the debt. >> yeah. we're all sitting here going, are you kidding me? i'm for it. the whole thing -- >> even if -- all of the time, effort and energy going into john boehner trying to get this passed in the house, they know even if that happens, they hand it off to the senate but it's not going to get through the senate. >> i know. behind the scenes, washington's preparing for a post-august 2nd world where the treasury will

not have enough money to pay all of its bills. mary snow joins us live. mary, what are the government's options if the debt ceiling is not raised? >> sadly not a lot. people outside of washington are scouring for potential solutions. former president clinton raised the process of invoking the 14th amendment. this is being questioned about whether the government could just print more money. one constitutional expert examined that. he found that the only way that could be done would be through minting trillion dollar coins, which underscores the limit the president has. >> zippy do da day. >> reporter: days until the government can no longer borrow money. if congress doesn't reach an agreement in time could there be a plan b for president obama to act on his own and raise money. fitting under the category of desperate times calling for desperate measures, there's actually some talk of issuing two $1 trillion coins. why coins? constitutional law expert jack

ballkin says there's a statutory limit on the amount of paper currency that can be in circulation, but not on coins. it's an idea he calls science fiction. >> i think what it underscores is that people are now trying to investigate different ways of resolving an artificially created financial fiscal crisis, and i think the problem is, that these solutions have been offered precisely because the situation we've been put in is so absurd. >> reporter: a potential option for the president that's been taken more seriously is the idea of him invoking a clause in the 14th amendment where he would raise the debt ceiling without congressional authorization. but the president himself has indicated that's not on the table. >> i have talked to my lawyers. they don't -- they do not -- they are not persuaded that is a winning argument. >> reporter: one way for the government to raise money is to sell assets. gold, now at record highs, is

one of those assets. but -- >> there's no likelihood of that at all. if the united states government were to announce that it was going to sell some gold to pay its bills, one can only imagine what would happen to the price of gold. you wouldn't want to be out of the way of that owe lapsing price. >> reporter: james powell under president george h.w. bush. he's been briefing members of congress saying he's been separating fact from fiction, even getting asked if the government can issue ious. >> if the debt ceiling is not increased, if no deal is made, then people need to understand there's no secret bag of tricks. there's no magic bullet that will allow us to avoid defaulting on our nondebt-related payments. >> bottom line, jay powell says is there's nothing the executive branch can practically do in the absence of a deal. >> so in the absence of a deal we know there will be a pretty immediate and stark cutback in government spending, 38 to 40% of everything that we spend is borrowed money, so that means

you're going to see immediate results in the economy. >> it's going to be like a 30 to 40% shutdown of government because that's -- something has to stop being spent. it will be very interesting. jay powell, not an alarmist about this by the way is saying clearly still not being an alarmist, but there isn't a solution if they don't raise the debt ceiling. >> i find it fascinating of the trillion dollar coin. >> kind of underscores how absurd this debate has become. and you know, also there's been talk about the president having to prioritize payments. jay powell said legally, it's not so clear that the president has that power without congressional approval. so that's even questionable. >> we know how easy it is to get congressional approval for anything, even the faa these days. >> the trillion dollar coin is neat. i don't know that we anybody a trillion dollar. go and ask for change. the guy on the other side of the counter, like, you know, a wise acre in new york, says you have anything smaller? >> right. no, we have a trillion dollar coin, buddy.

>> two half trillion dollar coins. you can split, you have a better shot. >> wouldn't be using it in new york. in hong kong or shanghai. >> that's true. where they always carry change. >> see you in the next hour as well. world markets are reacting in a big way this morning to all the debt indecision. let's go live to nina de santos in london. >> it's a sea of red. i've chosen the right color today, haven't i? european markets falling for the last couple hours. in fact, they opened in the red and they hit lows over the last half hour or so. asian markets also fell on the day, all of this is on the back of concerns about the u.s. debt impasse as it continues and we head toward the august 2nd deadline. we've had a bit of a reminder about the state of euro zone's sovereign debt as well. moody's investment services decided to earmark six spanish regions for a potential downgrade and that has exacerbated the fears about contagion to some of the euro

zone's larger economy after we saw the wrangling about debating, whether to award greece a second bailout, that has now been resolved, but the eye of the storm now focuses on spain. that's got the euro down and everybody heading towards the swiss franc. >> nina, the bottom line, on monday morning and we're talking and i see you wearing green we should be a little happier about the whole operation. >> i'm going to be dusting out my wardrobe now, ali. ever the optimist. >> thanks so much. a texas judge has granted polygamous leader warren jeffs' request to defend himself in supreme court. wh -- court. he objected to the trial proceedings and sat silently. charged with two counts of sexual assault on a child and one count of bigamy. a former yankee pitcher has been found dead in a suburban los angeles home. the 42-year-old japanese star by all indicatings committed suicide.

expectations were high for him when he left japan and burst on the scene in 1997. his career flamed out a few years later. amy winehouse's family believes the singer died from sudden alcohol withdraw. according to a story in "people" magazine the 27-year-old star ignored doctors orders to stop drinking gradually and went cold turkey in the last month of her life. the family believes that was too much of a shock to her system. read the entire article in "people" magazine on newsstands on tuesday. any network that wants to land the first interview with casey anthony will have to fork over $1.5 million to get it. cnn confirming that's her asking price. larry flynt telling nancy grace he's offering anthony $500,000 to pose nude in "hus her" magazine. >> the offer we made to casey to her attorney, $500,000 is only

half. if this goes viral and be as big as everybody thinks it was because of how big the trial was she could make millions. >> it seems the anthonys in high demand. tmz reporting george and cindy have been offered $250,000 to appear on a syndicated talk show. former shuttle astronaut lisa nowack forced to retire from the navy. made headlines in 2007 when she drove from houston attempting to kidnap an air force captain. and sergeant dustin williams will have to find another date for the marine corps ball in november. scarlet johansson said no. he invited her on youtube. the actress said she had prior commitments but as a way of saying thank you she's sending a case of champagne. >> so nice. still ahead on "american morning," dead-set against raising the nation's debt

ceiling, but are tea party lawmakers practicing what they preach? the fascinating look. >> balance the budget. oh wait, mine's not. big oil companies getting bigger. how much do they make in a day? we're going to tell you right after this break. [ male announcer ] get ready for the left lane. the volkswagen autobahn for all event is back. right now, get a great deal on new volkswagen models, including the jetta, awarded a top safety pick by the iihs. that's the power of german engineering. hurry in and lease the jetta s for just $179 a month. ♪ visit vwdealer.com today. -why? -why? -why? [ female announcer ] we all age differently. roc® multi-correxion 4 zone moisturizer with roc®retinol and antioxidants. lines, wrinkles, and sun damage will fade.

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oh wait, mine's not. ♪ ♪ give me everything tonight ♪ for all we know we might not get tomorrow ♪ >> we've had a big week of corporate earnings reports on wall street, but every week is a big week for big oil. there's never a shortage of outrage with high gas prices and struggling u.s. economy. this is how much each of these oil giants earned on average per day in profits in this last quarter. america's largest oil corporation, the largest, more rags and production company, exxon mobil, earned more than $117 million per day. in 2010 alone it made $30.5 billion and it is the most profitable company in the world according to rankings from

"fortune." royal dutch shell the largest oil company in europe raked in more than $95 million each and every day in the quarter and profits were -- the total profits as we'll see right now, were a lot bigger than that. bp, bouncing back after the oil spill in the gulf last year, the company made about $58 million a day after posting a $5.3 billion profit for the quarter. later this morning, chevron will report its second-quarter profits. the company made $19 billion in 2010, making its third most profitable company in the world. christine? >> all right. that's right. bp, that bp. these oil companies are cash machines because we need what they -- we are customers every day for what they produce. >> absolutely. >> house speaker john boehner's bill to raise the debt ceiling may be a dead end thanks to defections by tea party republicans. >> while their political position is clear, it appears some of the most outspoken anti-debt lawmakers have plenty of their own personal debt. cnn brian todd takes a look.

>> save our country. >> reporter: the fire brand class, deficit hawks in congress taking a hard line on the debt ceiling talks. some are tea party favorites who rail at congress for past spending like republican senator mike lee of utah. >> congress for decades has been bearing our children and our grandchildren both born and unborn under a mountain of debt. >> reporter: but according to recent disclosure forms senator lee has racked up significant personal debt of his own, at least $65,000 worth from a credit card and a line of credit. the forms released last month show there are a few republicans who are demanding a hard line on cutting the nation's debt but have plenty of debt on their own. nonpartisan spending watchdog taxpayers for common sense. >> this raises questions about are you walking the walk while talking the talk about getting the debt down. >> reporter: you to put this in context. an aide to senator lee said the senator couldn't do an interview with on this but the aide did push back hard saying the scrutiny is crack pot. the aide says the senator has his finances in order, is

managing his debt responsibly and if he's doing that, who are the critics to question his role in the budget debate. tea party supported republican congressman joe walsh has played a prominent role in that debate. >> thank god congressmen like me were here. imagine, step back and imagine, if the republicans hadn't taken over congress. this city would have raised the debt limit who knows how much. >> reporter: his ex-wife says he needs to pay up on a debt, more than $117,000 in child support according to a lawsuit. we couldn't reach walsh's attorney for comment but he told the "chicago sun times" walsh doesn't owe that amount. walsh says the attacks against him in this case are false but also says this. >> i'm the most openly vetted candidate in the world. i have had financial troubles and i talked about them throughout the campaign. this is where real america is. >> reporter: there's no evidence there's any financial impropriety what's wrong with them incurring debt millions of others do. >> they're allowed to incur debt like millions of others do but we're allowed to push back and

ask questions, if you choose to incur personal debt, that's how you choose to manage your finances how can you tell the country we can't manage our own debt. >> reporter: the documents say two other congressmen, tim give fin of arkansas who said america has a spending addiction and kevin yoder of kansas who said washington needs to cut up the credit cards, each had credit card debt of $15,000 as of late last year. we contacted the offices of both congressmen. they didn't respond. brian todd, cnn, washington. >> managing your debt is the key word here. managing your debt is the u.s. to a point where we're not managing our debt. >> that's right. >> countries that have -- >> the fact that you have debt is not the issue. that's become lost in this issue, that somehow it's terrible that we've got debt. everybody's got debt. every country has debt. >> if you have a mortgage, you debt. >> you couldn't buy a house, otherwise you would be 80 before you bought a house. >> the debt gets to be is up a big size of your economy and crowd out other things that's a problem and that's what we're

facing here. >> 49 minutes past the hour right now. still to come, major health news from the maker of extra strength tylenol. why they are lowering the maximum daily dosage of the pain reliever. they simply don't want you taking as much. we'll explain why. >> our question of the day friday style, this is based on, you know, a hamburger that has two doughnuts for the buns. what's your craziest food combination. ali loves this story. >> totally. hamburger with doughnuts i couldn't contain myself. >> make you za wheel. >> send us an e-mail, tweet, tell us on facebook. we'll read some of your comments a bit later. yoo-hoo. hello. it's water from the drinking fountain at the mall. [ male announcer ] great tasting tap water can now come from any faucet anywhere. introducing the brita bottle with the filter inside.

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[ golf clubs clanking ] [ husband ] i'm good! well, almost everything. [ male announcer ] glucerna. delicious shakes and bars. helping people with diabetes find balance. 51 minutes past the hour. a look at your headlines. house spoker john boehner may try again today for a vote on the bill to raise the debt ceiling. republican infighting forced him

to cancel a vote last night because there was not enough support to pass it. tropical storm don expected to reach the south texas coast by tonight. it is packing 50-mile-an-hour winds right now and bringing lots of rain, which is a blessing for the state. 90% of texas is suffering through a drought. an awol soldier under arrest in texas for allegedly plotting to attack fellow soldiers at ft. hood. officials say that army private naser abdo, a muslim-american had weapons and a makeshift bomb factory in his hotel room. the maker of tylenol reducing the maximum dose of eight pills to six. it is designed to lower the risk of accidental overdose from asee toe minna fin which could lead to liver failure. fluffy towels and bath robes may be over. they've gone high tech and one company has come up with a way to electronically tag the towels with traceable microchips. think about that the next time

you try to stuff one in your suitcase. "american morning" is back right after a quick break.

acetaminophen,. talk about a heart attack on a plane. the big kahuna doughnut burger making its debut at the state fair in syracuse. >> a quarter pound of meat between a glazed doughnut. i don't know if it's two doughnuts. >> hard to tell. >> put some cheese, bacon, lettuce, tomato, onion, and it comes out to a whopping 1500 calories. >> you know what my problem with it is, not that it's a doughnut, the way you made the burger so thick. how can you bite that? >> 1500 calories a lot for a

burger? >> for a burger? >> yeah. >> let me see. >> that's a lot. >> how much is a big mac, like 850. >> 1500 calories is -- yeah. >> maybe a big mac is 55. >> less concerned with the calories than the crazy combination of a doughnut and burger. it's our question of the day. >> what's your favorite craziest food combinations. tiffany writes in -- >> kate says -- getting a little weird. >> getting a little weird. >> 6:55 in the east. cheese whiz on marshmallows making me gross. that might have been anchovies they do that. >> he said straight up tuna fish. >> angie writes -- >> banana in that tuna. >> oh! >> joseph on facebook said -- a

cold hot dog with an oreo cookie. >> sounds like one of the day after rooting through the fringe desperate. >> cat mac on facebook says -- >> and kat, congratulations on your upcoming bundle of joy. we're going to take a quick break. four minutes to the top of the hour. hey, the new guy is loaded with protein!

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unlike fish oil, megared softgels are small and easy to swallow with no fishy smell or aftertaste. try megared today. no deal on the debt ceiling. speaker john boehner's bill doesn't have enough support in his own party to go for a vote. we're live in washington where the default clock is ticking down to the wire. >> tropical storm don bearing down on texas. crossing the gulf and picking up steam. rob marciano live from padre island, texas, where the locals say this storm could have a silver lining. dozens are dead in south korea. the heaviest downpours in a century, still dealing with massive flooding and landslides and the deadly rains not letting up on this "american morning." and casey anthony shopping her story for a very hefty price. she already has one offer that

can make her rich if she agrees to pose nude on this "american morning." good morning. it's friday, july 29th. you're looking -- you are looking live outside our studios in new york city. that's what it says. that's not what you're looking at. an end to a busy week in the news here. welcome to "american morning." a lot happening this morning. let's get right to it. >> a lot and so little at the same time. >> meaning it's one topic, one huge struggle, but it continues this morning. we're talking about, of course, the efforts in washington to try to end the debt crisis before next tuesday's deadline. here's a live look at the capitol this morning where overnight infighting among republicans forced house speaker john boehner to yank his debt deal. there is hope he can get it out there again today on the floor and pass it. in just four hours the speaker will sit down with republicans and try to entice a handful of hardline fiscal conservatives to fall in line.

>> the bill's not perfect. i never said it was perfect. nobody in my caucus believes it's perfect. but what this bill reflects is a sincere, honest effort to end this crisis in a bipartisan way to send it to the senate where it can receive action. >> the speaker's bill would cut $900 billion from the budget over ten years in exchange for a short, six-month extension of the debt ceiling. so yeah, we can do this again in six months. conservatives are angry, they say the cuts -- angry the cuts don't go deeper. >> we want to make sure we never get here again. i want to support something that makes sure we never get here again. >> the deal that is on the table, makes the hole deeper. so don't -- you shouldn't expect people who believe we should balance the budget to vote for a deal that makes the hole deeper. >> i can't support this plan. i would love to be able to

support speaker boehner, leader cantor. i have to have something that transcends election cycles. i can't support it. senate majority leader harry reid is blaming the tea party to the gridlock which is quickly bringing the government to the edge of a disastrous default in which case the treasury won't be able to pay all of its bills or the other way around the treasury wouldn't pay its bills and could driger a default. >> the white house is warning even if the speaker's bill does make it through the house it's expected to die in the senate. >> spending hour after hour here waiting for the republicans to twist arms for a vote, that is essentially irrelevant because as soon as they pass it, if they are able to, the senate will vote it down and we have to get back to the table and get something done. >> all right. this morning as the nation's debt continues to mount so, too, does the anger across the nation. you are paying the price for what has become an ugly partisan battle over the past five

consecutive days, the dow has dropped a total of 484 points and there are serious concerns from all quarters this morning that you're beginning to see signs of stress in the global markets because of this indecision. >> i'm curious. let's go to washington where joe johns is standing by. does that message get through, that there are serious concerns? the world's financial markets, which are relevant because they buy america's bonds, are very, very worried about this and how it's playing out? >> i think it gets through, but i got to tell you, in talking to some of these members of congress who have been on the fence or opposed, and also listening to them, you know, in just the feeds that come back and forth, i got to tell you, there are some members of congress who are not so sure that this august 2nd deadline is a real thing. they don't trust this administration. they think the administration is holding out and cash receipts or something else will give them a little bit of extra time, a little bit of extra breathing room, to do what they got to do.

so, it gets through, but there's a lot of skepticism, particularly upon the republicans who don't trust the president, ali. >> if their ira or 401(k) takes a hit, the credit suisse says a 30% hit to stocks over the next six months if there is a default, maybe they have to -- see it for themselves. >> the other problem with this, joe, even if this bill, we're talking about all of this wrangling behind the scenes by speaker boehner to get his conservative contingents in line in the house, even if that happens, it doesn't make it through the senate. what realistically happens next? how does a deal get done? >> well, they can change this bill a little bit in order to appease the conservatives who are concerned about it and try to pass it on out. they can leave its same. forget about it and let the senate do it or try to do it. but, you know, the bottom line is, this thing will be useful to the congress because it could serve pretty much as a template,

if you will. something they just sort of put their own words into for a finished product. this debate also sort of shows you the limitations on speaker of the house. it's clear there's only so much he can do and that message is also being conveyed to the people over the senate and white house. this is the useful exercise. >> joe -- go ahead. >> go ahead. >> i want to know, does john boehner have control of his party? >> no. well i mean, it's pretty clear -- here's what's clear. it's clear that when you look at this and you ask all these questions about well, is he going to survive, is he going to survive this, bills have been pulled from the floor of the house before because it can get very chaotic when you have sort of close relationship between the majority and minority in terms of numbers. so i mean, that's the bottom line here. what he and his leadership are guilty of at the very least, is not being very good vote counters because normally you

take a bill to the floor only when you know what's going to happen. they apparently took it out there and they were not so sure about what happened or maybe they just totally miscalculated and people lied to them, which becomes a question of arm twisting. we do know they didn't know what the numbers were when they went to the floor and that's their problem. they're going to try to fix that today. >> all right. joe johns for us, thanks so much. the question i was going to ask, similar question about the president. you can say these two gentlemen are in the same position. the president hasn't been able to fully rally his party and john boehner hasn't been able to fully rally his. >> the elephant in the room the t.a.r.p. vote. a lot of these guys, a cynic would say, looking back to people who signed the last on to the t.a.r.p.ing think they lost their jobs got booted out and new republicans saying we're not going to do -- this isn't t.a.r.p. it's different. totally differentth -- this is t the t.a.r.p. >> if someone said what the elephant is in the room i'm not not sure i would have gone for

the t.a.r.p. vote. >> are you telling me i'm a nerd? >> less than 20 minutes could we solve this debt ceiling crisis with two $1 trillion coins? mary snow takes a look at a possible plan b. in less than 30 minutes, we're going to talk to republican congressman tre trey gowdy, one of the republicans against the speaker's debt plan. we'll find out why and if there's anything the speaker can do to get the congressman to change his mind. if congress fails to raise the debt ceiling we cannot emphasize how big it could be. how are world markets reacting this morning, this chronic unease continues? >> i've got one word for you to answer that question, christine, nervously at the moment. everybody is watching to see what will happen in the united states over the course of the weekend. volumes are very light. all of the markets are currently trading in the red. we had asia ending the week on a downbeat note for a fifth day in

a row for in some of those markets we saw losses and europe is still losing as we speak. you were mentioning some of the largest investment banks like, for instance, credit suisse saying we could see a significant double-digit percentage decline in the markets if we don't get a deal on the u.s. debt ceiling. we should also mention that in the eye of the storm is the euro zone. debt crisis yet again when you think it's gone away it comes right back. moody's investment services has put the eye on spain. it's earmarked six of its regions for a potential downgrade. that has markets worried. >> thank you so much. nina de santos in london. talking about weather. texas has been in the grip of one of the worst droughts that the state has seen. the state is, though, about to get some relief. however this could be a double-edge sword. it's in the form of tropical storm don. expected to reach the texas gulf coast by tonight bringing with it plenty of rain, but also some of the damage and devastation that comes with tropical storm force winds. rob marciano is live on padre

island in texas. good morning, rob. >> good morning, kiran. as you mentioned double-edge sword there. we're hoping for a lot of rain but the more rain we get the more wind we get. we want a nice little balance there. at this point, tropical storm don is cooperating and not becoming a monster hurricane of any sorts. let's take a look at the satellite picture and show you the stats on it. 50-mile-an-hour winds, it's been slow to organize, slow to strengthen. couple atmospheric things working against this. dry air blowing against it. lot of warm water between here and there. 275 miles away from where i stand and heading in this direction 13 to 14 miles an hour. with that sort of timing it should make landfall some time tonight close to midnight. here's the forecast track from the national hurricane center keeping it at tropical storm strength. likely a moderate to potentially strong tropical storm. slight chance of it becoming a minimal hurricane. either way the stronger it gets, you know, we'll get nor rain with this and that's certainly what we need. this is the expected rainfall totals over the next 48 hours.

not nearly as much as what a lot of people are hoping for. some computer models are saying two, three, four inches of rainfall and not getting to the places that really, really need it. look at this drought map. highlighting the percentage of below normal, below average these cities are as far as rainfall year to date. it's staggering. houston, san antonio and austin around 60% below average. lubbock and midland, nearly nothing in the form of rain and i'm afraid to say that the rain that's coming from tst tropical storm don is not going to get to that area. speak of a double-edge sword. the u.s. department of agriculture said we it desperately need the rain but the texas department of agriculture were telling us a lot of the farmers have switched to cotton because cotton is drought resistant. it's harvest time and when rain comes in that lower the grade of cotton and lowers their harvest. it's good news for some and not good news for others. but either way, it's coming, guys and coming with some wind and just a matter of how much

rain and where that rain falls. back up to you. >> rob marciano with your weather and agriculture report this morning. >> that drought is a serious problem. >> it is. >> crops, everything. they're reliving a nightmare at the ft. hood army base in texas. another plot to kill soldiers has been uncovered by texas police and it was foiled just in time. >> an awol muslim-american army private in custody this morning. by all accounts he was close to pulling off a massacre at a military base, a base that's still reeling from the 2009 attack that took 13 lives. ed lavandera live in killeen, texas, this morning. ed, the similarities between the 2009 tragedy at ft. hood major nadal hassan and this plot are striking. >> >> this bringing back terrible memories for the people here. what's interesting is private first class naser abdo had been going through the process of getting conscientious objector status. as a muslim soldier he couldn't

kill other muslims. but authorities here and other authorities are correct, he didn't mind attempting, perhaps, to kill other american soldiers. it's a springfield xd. >> reporter: from the moment greg ebert set eyes on naser abdo, he said something didn't seem right. >> he shows up here in a taxicab. how many people go shopping at gun stores in a taxicab. >> reporter: the army private spent about 20 minutes inside the guns galore gun shop in killeen, texas. ebert says private abdo acted very guarded and asked odd questions. >> he selects these six canis r canisters and brings them to the counter and that's when he asks kathy, what is smokeless powder? hello. why are you buying this if you don't know what it is? >> reporter: ebert says abdo then spent almost $250 on a handgun magazine, three boxes of shotgun shells, and six pounds of smokeless gun powder. >> rang it up, he paid cash,

took his bag and left without the receipt or his change. >> reporter: left without his change? >> yeah. wasn't much, like 18 cents, 20 cents. >> reporter: ebert is a retired 20-year law enforcement veteran. it was that old cop's hunch that convinced him to report the suspicious customer to local police. within 24 hours, officers hunted him down and say they unraveled abdo's horrifying and deadly plan. >> we have interviewed him and we have the information as a result of that interview as well as other leads that we're following up on that gives us -- >> during the interview -- >> let me finish my statement. that leads us to believe that military target personnel was targeted. >> reporter: but police say this attack wouldn't have occurred inside ft. hood like the deadly massacre in 2009 where major nadal hassan, allegedly gunned down 13 soldiers. instead, authorities say abdo planned on attacking soldiers in popular gathering spots around killeen, just outside ft. hood.

>> how close was he to pulling this off? >> that's a good question, and i can tell you that we would probably be here today giving a different briefing had he not been stopped. >> reporter: law enforcement sources tell cnn bomb-making materials were found in abdo's room inside this killeen, texas, hotel. another source says islamic extremist literature was found in his backpack. ft. hood is still hurting from the deadly massacre two years ago and greg ebert can't help but think about what might have happened this time if he had not called police. >> i would be devastated, especially considering i might have played some role in someone being injured, seriously injured or killed, that would be very unsettling. >> reporter: now this morning, private abdo is still being held here at the killeen police department, but we do expect federal charges to be filed at some point and that could happen as soon as today. back to you guys. >> thanks, ed. still to come this morning, hundreds of grieving relatives

remembering the victims of last week's bombing and massacre at an oslo memorial service this morning. we'll tell you why police are rushing to question anders breivik again. >> seniors depend on social security and now worried about the cuts because of the debt crisis. what's the government saying this morning? we'll tell you. it's not all that comforting. an f-16 fighter jet skid office the runway and crashes in wisconsin. you'll hear from a witness who watched is happened. you're watching "american morning." 1967. i got mine in iraq, 2003. u.s.a.a. auto insurance is often handed down from generation to generation, because it offers a superior level of protection and because u.s.a.a.'s commitment to serve the military, veterans, and their families is without equal. begin your legacy. get an auto insurance quote. u.s.a.a. we know what it means to serve.

right now u.s. stock futures are trading lower ahead of the opening bell.

a big day, investors sorting through economic data, earnings report, watching for news on the debt ceiling debate in washington. treasury officials are telling cnn executives from 20 major banks will meet with treasury officials today at the new york federal reserve building in manhattan. topping their agenda the debt ceiling and potential fallout if a deal is not reached in time. wall street executives getting vocal on the debt debate in washington. a report from credit suisse says u.s. stocks could tumble 30% over the next six months to a year if the debt ceiling is not raised in time and the u.s. defaults. they did say the chances of that are very, very low but it would be serious. several of wall street's top ceos sent a letter to president obama and congress yesterday urging swift action this week on the nation's debt ceiling talks. later this morning the world's third most profitable company oil giant chevron is expected to report its second quarter earnings before the opening bell. just a few minutes ago big health care company merck plans to cut 12% to 13% of its work force over the next four years.

the company announced its quarterly earnings were in line with wall street's expectation. the big business story today, a major economic indicator, second quarter gdp comes out in about an hour from now at 8:30 a.m. eastern time. economists surveyed by cnnmoney.com forecast that the economy grew at a rate of 1.8%, slowing slightly from the previous quarter. also later today, the obama administration expected to announce a new round of tougher fuel economy standards for cars and trucks. the new rules will require vehicles sold in 2025 to average about 55 miles an gallon. that is double current levels. don't forget for the latest news about your money check out the all new cnnmoney.com. "american morning" back right after this break. where do you go to find a super business? you know, the ones who do such a super job,

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welcome back to "american morning." right now, norway's prime minister is joining hundreds of grieving relatives at a memorial service in central oslo. they're remembering lost loved ones from last week's bombing

and massacre that killed 76 people. the service was organized by the youth movement of the norwegian labor party. 68 of their friends were slaughtered one week ago at the group's summer camp. the suspect in those attacks anders breivik will face a second round of questioning by police today and evaluated by psychiatri psychiatrists. he's been in solitary confinement. police say they've uncovered a lot of new leads and want to make sure there's no further threat. bring in our senior international correspondent nic robertson live from oslo this morning where this memorial service is going on right now. i know this is a nation really in turmoil and mourning because of this situation. what's it like today? >> well, you really get that sense that everyone here is coming together and supporting unity for all the victims. we are just outside the center of oslo, about an hour's drive from the national memorial service at the first funeral

here for one of those young victims shot down on the island. an 18-year-old girl. she's a kurdish-iraqi descent and she published her thesis on democracy. she really was all about the youth movement of the labor party, the ruling party here. so many people have gathered at this joint muslim and christian service, that they're overflowing from the church here. it really is, you can see it by the people, a repudiation of breivik's hatred of mul multiculturalism. a joint muslim-christian service. some of the survivors on the island are still traumatized by everything they went through. >> i want to go back. i want to go back as soon as possible, actually, just to see how it's like there now. i will also see for what it's like and how i remember it from

the beautiful place, probably the most beautiful place on earth, where young people gathered around and to discuss, to change society to make it a better place for all of us, and i want to see the places where i have been and where i tried to escape. i want to make peace with the island again and let go of what happened. >> so many of those young people we've seen them coming here today. this is a week now since the horrible events took place. it is a nation still in shock, but this, perhaps, perhaps the beginning of some of the healing. >> nic robertson for us this morning. solemn morning for sure there, thank you. still to come, the scramble to come up with a plan b for the nation as the debt ceiling approaches on tuesday. one of the ideas involves the minting of one $1 trillion coins. how is that going to work? mary snow will tell us. it's 26 minutes after the hour.

you are watching "american morning." yoo-hoo. hello. it's water from the drinking fountain at the mall. [ male announcer ] great tasting tap water can now come from any faucet anywhere. introducing the brita bottle with the filter inside.

time for your top stories this morning. as we mentioned this morning on capitol hill house speaker john boehner is again going to try to muster enough republican support to pass his debt plan. last night the vote was called off. it was supposed to be yesterday afternoon. they delayed it. supposed to be last night. it was called off after the speaker was unable to convince enough hardline fiscal conservatives to back the plan. >> police uncovering a terror plot targeting soldiers at ft. hood in texas.

naser abdo an awol muslim-american private was arrested. police say he planned to kill soldiers outside the base. army major nadal hassan is accused of killing 13 fellow soldiers at ft. hood, just two years ago. and tropical storm don is expected to hit the texas gulf coast around midnight tonight. heavy rain is going to be welcome in texas where the entire state is dealing with a severe drought. so some people are hoping that it works well, but i got to tell you, hard to balance wanting rain but not wanting the damage that comes with a tropical storm. >> back to our top story this morning, house speaker john boehner will try to entice a few conservative holdouts to support his debt ceiling plan, a plan he hopes to plan some time today. joining me from capitol hill is one of the republican holdouts, congressman from south carolina. good morning congressman. thank you for joining us this morning. what do you need to see from the house speaker and from his plan to get you on board? >> i think speaker boehner has done a masterful job. i would not want his job for

quadruple the salary. for me it has to be a remedy that is transformative, that transcends election cycles, it has to be a remedy that ensures the 75th time we raise the debt ceiling is the last time we raise the debt ceiling. i think we made progress last night. that's not the narrative that i watched when i got in at midnight. i think last night was productive. >> productive how? they had to pull it and now we're looking for something new to come out this morning and you're still hearing that by the time it gets to the senate it wouldn't make it anyway? >> we can't control what happens in the senate, and thankfully we're not responsible for what happens in the senate because not a whole lot happens in the senate. our job is to or at least i view my job as the congressman for the fourth congressional district in south carolina, is to vote the collective conscience of my constituents which is this -- we have a $14 trillion problem, the notion of

giving the president a clean debt increase was never going to happen, so the issue then becomes what's the best thing you can get in exchange for raising the debt ceiling. many of us who are labeled or vilified as extremists and radicals have voted twice to raise the debt ceiling. once in paul ryan's budget. >> i'll tell you why they're vilified because there's two different things here, there's the debt ceiling which is paying for what congress has already passed and already agreed on and then there's getting the budget deficit and our debt and deficits under control, which is something else. and you guys are using the debt ceiling as leverage to work on that bigger long-term unsustainable debt story. you know, you've made a lot of progress. you have got the president on board, even talking about entitlement reforms, you've got him up to $3 trillion or $4 trillion in cuts. and you've got a national conversation about living beyond our means. isn't that enough? >> it's progress in the right

direction, but i would respectfully say to you if more congress has used raising the debt ceiling as a leverage point, then you and i may not be having this conversation. i think it's instructive that five years ago, the president, the vice president, voted no on raising the debt ceiling. the notion that it is all of a sudden calamitous or that calamitous sends a different definition because republicans are running the house is ball der dash. i am happy to raise the debt ceiling. i have voted to do it twice. i want the 75th time to be the last time. >> so you said if you think calamitous is balder dash, i want to give you a couple, credit suisse says stocks may fall 30% if the u.s. defaults, 30% for stocks your constituents would see their 401(k)s go down, bank presidents, bank ceos saying raise the debt ceiling this week, please, or we will suffer grave consequences and strains already showing up, sir, in the short-term lending market, the short-term credit markets, companies pulling out

billions of dollars because they want to wait and see what's going to happen next. we're already seeing the strains. >> do this for me, read the quotes of what will happen if our bond rating is downgraded, which is going to happen if we don't bend the spending arc in this country. the dichotomy -- >> i think we all agree on that. here's the thing, two things happening -- >> let's fix it. >> exactly. fix it in a responsible way. if you don't raise the debt ceiling and suddenly you have a 40% cut at government spending, 40% slam on the brakes quickly in the economy, that would have calamitous effects on jobs. that's not an opinion. that's not editorializing. that is a fact, congressman. how do we do it in a responsible way without holding the debt ceiling hostage to it? >> here's another fact a. the house republicans voted twice to raise the debt ceiling. one was voted down in the senate, the other was not even given the luxury of a vote. it was tabled. so we've done it twice.

if the senate has a plan, they certainly haven't shared it with us. if the president has a plan he hasn't shared it with us. what we'll do today, i predict it will be done today, is for the third time, send a plan that raises the debt ceiling in a responsible way. the senate hasn't done it. the white house hasn't done it. i just respectfully disagree with you. nobody wants a default. i have not met a soul that wants a default. nor do we want a downgrade, which is coming if we do not bend the spending arc in this country. i happen to think we can do both. we can avert a default and bend the spending arc and avoid a downgrade and let's don't kid ourselves, a downgrade is just as insidious as a default over the long term. >> yeah. i mean it absolutely is. we know that the -- our deficits and debts are unsustainable. we know that. but the concern here is, and you must be concerned, that you and your -- and the tea party part of your party and your party, could be blamed if this whole

thing goes south because there isn't a political solution in washington. >> well, you know, i'm -- i smile because the tea party is blamed for -- some of the guys that was in the room last night have been fiscal conservatives before there ever was a phrase called tea party. i know it's convenient to blame the tea party for it. it just happens to be the monitor -- demonsterbly false. jeff blake has been a fiscal conservative since before there was a tea party, so has mike pens, jeff hensarling. these are folks who have voted time and again to raise the debt ceiling, always promise that we're going to have a conversation about a long-term systemic fix, and it never comes. so the 75th time we raise the debt ceiling, let's make sure that's the last. i don't think that's a radical proposition. >> congressman, i'll get you there. even, you know, ali and i and others have been reporting for years on the unsustainable debt situation, only this time if it

comes down to a downgrade, technical default or real default on our bonds and ends up costing us more in the end, when fixing our spending costs us more because of the way we've gone about fixing our spending that would hurt everyone. republican from south carolina thank you for joining us today, sir. >> thank you. good conversation. lots of very valid points, but kiran and my favorite part of it, you both used the word ball derdash. i have never used the word. >> both used it well. >> invoking words hobbit, ball ger dash. sometimes you can't make this stuff up. >> the one difference i know you were discussing with the congressman, is there's a difference between the downgrade that is probably inevitable at this point which from is aaa to aa, and the downgrade that you get if you actually default on debt. that's a serious downgrade, a very different story. that's a distinction. >> this is what kills me about this conversation. we're talking about cutting spending because everyone wants to be if fiscally conservative. >> if you get downgraded. >> it's going to cost you more.

it's going to cost you more. by fixing our spending problem it's going to cost us more. washington's still preparing for this august 2nd world where the treasury would not have enough money to pay all of our bills. >> mary snow joins us live with the absurdities of this. what are the government's options if the debt ceiling isn't raised? >> it is getting pretty absurd as you're about to hear and not many options. one constitutional expert at yale university scoured the scenarios where the president could bypass congress. one thing he examined, could the government just print more money. not unless it only came in the form of coins. >> zippy do da day. >> reporter: days until the government can no longer borrow money. if congress doesn't reach an agreement in time could there be a plan b for president obama to act on his own and raise money. fitting under the category of desperate times calling for desperate measures, there's actually some talk of issuing two $1 trillion coins. why coins?

constitutional law expert jack balkin says there's a statutory limit on the amount of paper currency that can be in circulation, but not on coins. it's an idea he calls science fiction. >> i think what it underscores is that people are now trying to investigate different ways of resolving an artificially created financial fiscal crisis, and i think the problem is, that these solutions have been offered precisely because the situation we've been put in is so absurd. >> reporter: a potential option for the president that's been taken more seriously is the idea of him invoking a clause in the 14th amendment where he would raise the debt ceiling without congressional authorization. but the president himself has indicated that's not on the table. >> i have talked to my lawyers. they don't -- they do not -- they are not persuaded that is a winning argument. >> reporter: one way for the

government to raise money is to sell assets. gold, now at record highs, is one of those assets. but -- >> there's no likelihood of that at all. if the united states government were to announce that it was going to sell some gold to pay its bills, one can only imagine what would happen to the price of gold. you wouldn't want to be out of the way of that collapsing price. >> reporter: james powell under secretary of the treasury department under george h.w. bush. he's been briefing members of congress saying he's been separating fact from fiction, even getting asked if the government can issue ious. >> if the debt ceiling is not increased, if no deal is made, then people need to understand there's no secret bag of tricks. there's no magic bullet that will allow us to avoid defaulting on our nondebt-related payments. >> bottom line, jay powell says, is there's really nothing the executive branch can practically do in the absence of a deal. so the president is really limited here. >> the trillion dollar coin not practical, mary? >> it just shows how crazy the

whole thing is. >> totally is. the thought of this constitutional expert at yale scouring the books to find out what constitutional thing could we do. >> what is his take on the question of the language in the 14th amendment that says it's -- that the debt shall not be questioned. i mean could this -- he believes she could do this, even though it's politically tough. >> a lot of difference of opinions. some legal scholars say yes, others say -- >> the language around that clause, the rest of it sort of does talk about rebellion and things like that. >> can you imagine the anti-obama campaign ads if he did that. it would be just be be -- didn't michele bachmann say he would be a dictator. >> she would move to impeach him. >> she said it would be, yeah, he could be impeached for that. she also said it's not going to happen. there's no way that the white house would do that. the white house isn't saying they're going to do that. it's interesting. >> mary, you have a point, that you heard and very similar to christine's point she was making

with the congressman, that if -- we don't know it's going to happen, if there is a default or downgrade and interest rate goss up and if that spreads to everybody else's car loans and mortgages and things like that, then you've basically imposed a tax hike. >> basically a tax on everyday people. >> on everyday americans. just a downgrade of the aaa rating. >> i still think they're scared about the quote/unquote t.a.r.p. vote. saw people vote for the bank bailout, told everything would be terrible in the world and they lost their seats and this might have more self-preservation. >> very easy for everyone to say it didn't work but it did save the system. ahead on "american morning," an f-16 fighter jet skids off the runway and crashes in wisconsin. you'll hear from a witness who said he knew something was wrong before the pilot touched down. a leader of a polygamous church telling the judge he wants to represent himself at his criminal trial. what warren jeffs did next when the judge said fine, represent yourself. it's 43 minutes past the hour.

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welcome back to "american morning." it's 46 minutes past the hour right now. north korea and the united states are talking to one another. this is actually the first face-to-face meeting that's taken place between representatives from the two countries since talks broke down in 2008. they're discussing nuclear weapons at the u.s. mission to the united nations and the talks are expected to continue today. a texas judge granting polygamous church leader warren jeffs request to defend himself in court but when it was time to present opening statements yesterday, jeffs' objected to the trial proceeding and sat silently. he's charged with two counts of sexual assault on a child and one count of bigamy. the defense department trying to figure out what caused an f-16 fighter to skid off a runway and crash as it was landing. check this out at an airfield in wisconsin. rough landing caught on tape and something goes wrong all of a sudden, veers off into the

grass, which there you go, you can sort of see it there. witnesses say they were watching fighter jets coming in for landings all morning. this one looked different as it approached. >> i saw the one previous taxi through going pretty slow and he came past so fast i thought, oh, no, this is not going to be good. >> the pilot was able to walk away from the wreck unhurt. >> thank goodness you know how much those are. >> lot of money. >> very expensive. still to come this morning, casey anthony shopping her story, at least according to her representatives. what the network will have to pay if they want to land an exclusive interview. our question of the day, it's getting all of you heartburn out there. >> great answers. >> craziest food combination. pegged off a story about a state fair in syracuse, a hamburger on two doughnuts. >> send us an e-mail. what is your craziest food combination. we'll read your comments later in the program. they said i couldn't fight above my weight class. but i did. they said i couldn't get elected to congress.

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goes into every one. like variable valve timing and turbocharging, active front grille shutters that close at high speeds, and friction reducing -- oh, man, that is complicated. how about this -- cruze eco offers 42 miles per gallon. cool? ♪ lot going on this morning. here's what you need to know. house speaker john boehner's plan to raise the debt ceiling and cut spending could come up for a vote today. republicans called off the vote last night after it became clear there wasn't enough to support that bill. police have uncovered another terror plot targeting soldiers at ft. hood in texas. they've arrested naser abdo, an awol muslim-american army private who allegedly planned to kill fellow soldiers on that base. a memorial service in oslo this morning for relatives of the 76 victims of last week's

bombing and youth camp massacre. police acting on new leads questioning suspect anders breivik for a second time today to make sure there's no no lingering threat. ex-yankee pitcher hideki arubu found dead in his los angeles home. police say the 42-year-old japanese star committed suicide. the makers of extra strength tylenol reducing maximum from eight pills a day to six to prevent an overdose to acetaminophen. don is packing 50-mile-an-hour winds and bringing lots of rain which is a blessing for the drought-stricken state. you're caught up on today's headlines. "american morning" will be back in 60 seconds.

it's hard to run from the desk here in heels. christine knows. >> i do know. >> welcome back to "american morning." go ahead, ali. >> good to have you. >> any network that wants to land a interview with casey anthony has to be willing to work over $1.5 million to get it. cnn has confirmed that is her asking price. meanwhile, publisher larry flynt tells nancy grace he has offered anthony $500,000 to pose nude in his magazine. >> the offer that we made to casey through her attorney, $500,000 is only part of it. we are willing to pay 10% of the profits. so if this thing goes viral and it could be as big as everybody

thinks it is because of the trial, she could make millions. >> seems like all of the anthonys in high demand. tmz reporting that sinned' parents are offered money to appear to a syndicated talk show. she drove 900 miles from houston to atlanta. police say she considered the woman her a rival for her affection for a astronaut pilot. scarlett has prior commitments but of saying thank you she is sending along a case of champagne. >> kiran, you have been quiet about this. the first invitation by marine you had a lot to say about it. >> first of all, i said i didn't think that mila kunis would go and justin timberlake was goating her into it.

then justin is asked and he says he is going to go. i said that is great but i have to see it to believe it. you say yes but you're a big hollywood star but can you do it with the security mess and impeding on other guests at the dance. talk about your heart attack on a plane. the big kahuna doughnut burger making its debut. >> yuck. >> you say yuck. >> i think it looks horrible. >> i really don't want a hamburger on my doughnut. it's a hamburger with a doughnut around the bun. >> it has 1,500 little calories so that brings us to our question of the day. what is your craziest food combination? home made spaghetti flavored ice cream with captain crunch on top. >> whoa! >> that just odd. fried pickles and coffee.

would it make your morning? no. >> i'm assume he is having coffee to wash down his fried pickles. doesn't scare me as much. mike says rice krispies with michelob. snap, crackle and bell sh. >> nothing better than vanilla ice cream with chocolate covered bacon bits my favorite comes from yun cover the news on twitter says the craziest is poutine. fries topped in gravy and cheese curds. you would be think i would be getting paid by mentioning poutine. >> he has said it three times this week. e-mail us, give us a tweet, tell us on facebook and we will read through some of them later in the program. next hour, tell you about

the tea party member blasting the white house with reckless spending while he is racking up over $65,000 in personal debt himself. we get double miles every time we use our card... i'll take these two... ...no matter what we're buying. ...and all of those. and since double miles add up fast, we can bring the whole gang! it's hard to beat double miles! whoa dude. [ male announcer ] get the venture card from capital one and earn double miles on every purchase, every day. go to capitalone.com. what's in your wallet?

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i'm christine romans. republicans call off a vote on boehner's debt plan. what is next? we are live with david gergen. i'm kiran chetry. they are reliving a nightmare at ft. hood this morning. two years after 13 people were massacred at the army base, police uncovered another plot by a fellow soldier to kill soldiers there. i'm ali velshi. more than 90% of texas in extreme drought, the state could use a lot of rain and tropical storm don is fast approaching the south texas coast on this "american morning." good morning. it's friday, july 29th. welcome back to "american morning." we have a lot of new developments this morning on the debt crisis. you're looking at a live picture right now at capitol hill where the temperatures and the stakes are rising this morning. for the past couple of days, house speaker john boehner has

been working hard, twisting arms among his fellow republicans to try to get something done. he couldn't get enough votes to get his debt ceiling plan voted on. let's listen. >> the bill is not perfect. i've never said it was perfect. nobody in my caucus believes it's perfect. but what this bill reflects is a sincere honest effort to end this crisis in a bipartisan way to send it to the senate where it can receive action. >> the speaker's bill would cut $900 billion from the budget over ten years, in exchange for short six-month extension of the s debt ceiling. christine spoke to trey gowdy who is against boehner's plan and she asked him what he wants to see from the house speaker. >> what we will do today, i predict it will be done today, is for the third time, send a plan that raises the debt

ceiling in a responsible way. the senate hasn't done it, the white house hasn't done it. i just respectfully disagree with you. nobody wants a default. i have not met a soul that wants a default, nor do we want a downgrade which is coming if we do not bend the spending arc in this country. we can avert a default and avoid a downgrade. a downgrade is as insidious as a default over the long term. >> if they do that, they have to do that soon. >> i get where he is coming from. it is not true that a downgrade is as insidious as a default. a downgrade can be a downgrade from aa to aaa. when you yault you can drop your credit rating a lot lower so they are two different things. i hope congress starts to understand that. >> both will cost us more money. >> you could have a downgrade that doesn't end up making interest rates rise in a

precipitous manner, but a default is serious. down the street at the white house, the administration is warning that even if the speaker's bill does make its way through the house, it is expected to die in the senate. >> we're spending hour after hour here waiting for the republicans to twist arms for a vote that is essentially irrelevant because as soon as they pass it, if they are able to, the senate will vote it down and we will have to get back to the table and get something done. >> democratic national committee chairwoman debra wasserman schultz releasing a statement. she says, quote it should be a wake-up call to speaker boehner and the republican majority it's my highway way or the highway. >> we have a lot to cover this morning. we want to bring in david gergen, our senior political analyst, live for us in london. you were smart enough to get out of town. washington just can't seem to get its act together with this. the house delaying a vote on

boehner's bill today. they are trying to convince tea party backed members to get behind this plan. the question is how does boehner twist arms when he has a group of tea party members dug in and believe they were sent to congress with this mandate to cut spending and some of them have indicated to us right here on the show they don't care about re-election? >> well, i think that the -- please know that the reverberations from what is going on in washington is felt here in london and around the world. people are getting deeply concerned in london and people are agast at american politics and brought ourselves to the brink and could bring the world to a new economic crisis. everyone around the world is watching this and we have entered now the most important 24 hours, i think, perhaps the 36 hours in this whole long debate because the house has to break, one way or the other, the house has to vote today and the senate has to move on whatever it wants to put forward. how does speaker boehner get there? he was within a few votes of

getting there. please understand, he has about 90% of all republicans in his caucus with him. about 10% who are holding this thing up. and he doesn't have any earmarks to offer them any more, which is a good thing. but he can make changes in the bill itself. he can perhaps reweave into it a balanced budget amendment to make some other concessions here and there to the hard-liners to get the last few votes. >> even if this all happens, we are spending hours waiting for the house gop leadership to convince the swing of the party to get on board. even if they do pass this boehner plan the senate is voting it down, right? we're back at the table again. how do we get out of this? >> well, their calculation all along is if they can pass the boehner plan the senate said it will be unable to pass a replan, they will have no choice but to accept the boehner plan in the senate and the president will sign it and some democrats think that could conceivably happen.

the more likely scenario is the boehner plan probably passes but it does fail in the senate. the replan fails in one chamber or the other. then we have an unveiling of a new compromise, the final compromise perhaps that has been -- being quietly sort of shaped behind the scenes but there haven't been direct negotiations for a while that would bring senator mcconnell along with perhaps vice president biden and certainly harry reid, that they would come up with something that would have elements to the boehner plan and hopefully enough to pass the house. >> let me ask you this. you, obviously, have been around a long time and watched this -- >> never, never, never! never seen anything like this. >> alleged impasse suddenly get solved at the 11th hour. seen this before. i talked to michele bachmann and she is running for president. she put the blame on the shoulders of president obama. why are we up until this point pressing up against the august

2nd deadline in the first place the president should have been ahead of this and submitted something in january? in the meantime, the democrats are blaming john boehner saying you're not even able to get people in your own party to vote for you. they are talking about this leadership vacuum on both sides. who do you think is right? >> well, i think it's time to stop the damn blame game and get serious and get the problem solved! people can go back to their sand boxes when this is over or they should go home. at the moment, you know, they ought to stop pointing fingers at each other. we have enough of it. from the white house, the democrats and now getting it from the tea party. the american people are disgusted with this and so is the world and it's typically to stop pointing the fingers and sit down and work this thing out. we don't have many more hours left. ali and christine can tell you fairly well how dangerous this is. >> right. how do we allow ourselves to get to this point if it is that dangerous meaning the august 2nd -- >> i think we can go back and do the retrospective later. i think a lot of mistakes made

by all parties to this. everybody has their fingerprints on this, on rolling political disaster. but to sit here -- you know, at this point, people ought to put down their swords and figure out in a spirit of being grown-ups, how can we get this done? you know, in past crises with one exception, with the civil war, and that -- look at what a catastrophe that was. i'm not saying this is a civil war but elements of this that remind you of that. then other crises like this, people at the end of the day, have been able to put down their differences, momentarily, and say, okay, i don't care how the hell we got here, let's figure out how we get out. >> so what is your solution? where do they find enough common ground to get something done before august 2nd? >> well, i think that -- that boehner and reid plans actually are closer together than they appear in terms of they both cut spending about a trillion dollars in the first round. the issue becomes what do you do

in a second round? that is hard. because a first round of cuts is going to be the easier set of cuts. the second round will get into entitlements and raise all sorts of questions about taxes. it's very, very hard, but the critical thing now is to get the debt ceiling lifted so that that can be settled in some sort of reasonable way. they cannot take us over and to talk to the people -- look. 10% holding out right now, i don't know who is holding the black queen when this is over. somebody is going to be -- if we go into default somebody will get most of the blame and i can guarantee you the wrath of the american voters will come down hard on whoever it is who is seen as preventing us from solving this problem. >> which is why the speaker wants to get it out of the house, right? >> why does he have to wait? i don't understand that. he can go ahead and get the wheels moving. i guess it's because they think it's potentially a revenue bill, it starts over in the house. you know, it's more of a -- they are politicking in the senate and want to see whether boehner

can do it or not because they know they get the upper hand in the senate if boehner fails. boehner could feel. it's teetering. he doesn't have the votes. he would have done it last night if he had. we will see where he is today. he is a very crafty player. >> we will see. this changes minute-by-minute. david gergen, thank you. >> thank you so much. >> sure. from london today. less than 30 minutes we will look why boehner is struggle to get the votes for his plan. speaking to steven moore, a senior economics writer for the wall street editorial page. they are living a nightmare this morning in ft. hood base in texas. another plot to kill soldiers there is uncovered by texas play. awol navy private named naser abdo is in custody this morning. he is reeling from a 2009 attack that killed 13 people at ft. hood. >> i can tell you that we would probably be here today giving you a different briefing had he

not been stopped. >> the army says abdo's request to be discharged was approved this year but that was put on hold when dozens of images of child pornography were found on a computer he used. he went awol over the july fourth weekend. prime minister joining hundreds of grieving mourners there in oslo honoring lost loved ones from last weekend's bombing and massacre that killed 76 people. 68 of their friends were slaughtered one week at a group's summer camp outside oslo. the suspect in those attacks anders breivik facing a second round of questioning by police today. they say they have uncovered a lot of new leads in the last few days and they want to make sure there is no further threat. south korea continues to be d deluged by heavy rains. mudslides and landslides.

51 deaths reported. rain falling 2 inches an hour in some places. new jersey's governor is returning to work this morning after a health scare. christie was taken to the hospital yesterday when his asthma suddenly flared up. >> i took the rescue inhaler that i have. didn't have the effect it normally has. i started to feel light-headed and i spoke to the troopers and said i wasn't feeling well. apparently i didn't look all that well. and they -- we both decided that we should get me someplace quickly. >> governor christie was discharged after a battery of tests that all came back normal. he has been trying to lose weight which he thinks might have some impact on that. still to come, they are dead set against raising the nation's debt ceiling but our debt cutters practicing what they preach when it comes to their personal finances. brian todd has an interesting look for us. tropical storm don making its way toward the texas coast

with almost the entire state in drought. don can't get this fast enough.

bill to raise the debt ceiling may be at a dead end thanks to the tea party republicans. >> their political position is clear but it appears smo of the most outspon anti-debt lawmakers have plenty of personal debt. cnn's brian todd is following that. >> reporter: they are the fire brand class. deficit hawks in congress taking a hard line on the debt ceiling talks. some are tea party favorites who rail at congress for past spejed like republican senate mike lee of utah. >> congress has been burying our children and grandchildren both born and unborn under a mountain of deck. >> reporter: according to recent disclosure forms he has debt of his own. at least $65,000 worth from a credit card and a line of credit. the forms released last month show there are few republicans who are demanding a hard line on

cutting the nation's debt but plenty of debt on their own. >> i think this raises questions about are you walking the walk while you're talking the talk about getting the debt down. >> reporter: senator lee's argument? you have to put this in context. an aide to lee said he couldn't do an interview on this but the aide pushed back hard saying the secrete knee is, quote, crack pot. he says the senator has his finances in order and managing his debt responsibly and if he is doing who are the critics to question his role in the budget debate? joe walsh played a prominent role in that debate. >> thank god congressmen like me were here. step back and imagine if the republicans hasn't taken over congress. this city would have raised the debt limit who knows how much. >> reporter: walsh's ex-wife says he needs to pay up on a big debt. more than $117,000 in child support according to a lawsuit. we couldn't reach walsh's attorney for a comment but according to the times walsh doesn't owe that amount.

he says the attacks against him in this case are false but also says this. >> i am the most openly vetted candidate in the world. i have had financial troubles and i talked about them throughout the campaign. this is where real america is. >> reporter: there is no evidence there is any financial impropriety. what is wrong with incurring debt that millions others do? >> they are allowed to incur debt like millions of other americans do but we are allowed to push back and ask questions if you choose to incur personal debt if that is how you choose to manage your finances how can you tell the country we can't manage our own debt? >> reporter: i. documents say tim griffin of arkansas who recently said america has got a spending addiction and kevin yoder of kansas who said washington needs to cut up 9 credit cards each had credit card debt of threes $15,000 as of late last year. we contacted the offices of both congressmen. they didn't respond. brian todd, cnn, washington. tropical storm don could end up dumping nearly half a foot of

desperately needed rain on south texas. >> the storm is expected to make landfall around midnight along the gulf coast in texas. cnn's rob marciano is live on padre island, texas. is the good of the rain going to come sort of outweighing the fact it's a tropical storm? >> reporter: at this point, yeah. the winds aren't going to be much greater than tropical storm strength, if at all. if it gets to a category 1 hurricane this coastline will absorb that fairly well. still, the gulf of mexico behind me. you know, that's a potent force. at about high tide now. the storm itself about 250 miles south and east of me and we are now beginning to see the cloud canopy or leading edge of that coming towards us. the oil industry taking precaution. exxonmobil evacuated all nonessential personnel from some of their offshore drilling sites. they estimate they are shutting down 50,000 cubic feet of natural gas production and 8,000

barrels per day of liquid resources that are being tapped. that will stop until the storm passes. so precautions are being taken. some of the local community colleges have evacuated actually and some businesses are shutting down in spots here. here is the satellite picture. 50-mile-an-hour winds as mentioned. a couple of hundred miles offshore still and heading this way at 14 miles an hour. that will bring it to this -- to the coastline here this evening, with landfall tonight. the official forecast track from the national hurricane center keeps it at tropical storm strength and landfall between here and brownsville, texas. again, tonight through tomorrow. let's talk rainfall. winds shouldn't be that big of an issue. rainfall 2 to 4 and in some cases 5 to 6 inches hopefully will come on shore in extreme drought-stricken texas and some of that get to the western part of the state. some of it but not as much as needed. look at the deficits in austin and san antonio and houston. 60% down in places like midland

and lubbock. 80% and almost a hundred percent down. some places haven't seen any rain so they desperately need it. they will get some of it. we flew into san antonio yesterday, guys. just flying in, you looked outside the airplane window, it just looked dry and then driving here was dry as well. we saw a lot of cotton crops. farmers here have been changing over to cotton because it's drought resistant and some of that coming into harvest and they tell us they don't want the rain now because that decreases the yield and the quality of the cot obon. you can't make everybody happy but for sure most texas residents are welcoming the rainfall that don will bring. >> as long as it stays a tropical storm which it's expected to do, right, rob? >> reporter: exactly. >> good to see you this morning. thanks. later this year, the population on the planet earth will hit 7 billion, with a "b" mark. we just hit $6 billion in 1999.

t un projects we will top the 20 billion mark in 2020. major health news from extra strength tylenol and tell you why they are lowering the maximum dosage of that pain reliever. we will have tips how to disconnect while on evacuation. i won't be conducting that interview. i would have to recuse myself because i don't think it's possible. 21 minutes after the hour. naturals from purina cat chow. delicious, real ingredients with no artificial flavors or preservatives. naturals from purina cat chow. share a better life.

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"minding your business." major economic indicator second quarter gdp, that releases in a few minutes. economists surveyed by cnn/money.com forecast the economy grew at a rate only 1.8% in the quarter slowing slightly from the previous quart. merck says saucket profit in line with estimates on wall street and it will cut as many as 13,000 jobs from its work force the next four years. the world's third most profitable company oil giant

chevron expected to report second quarter earnings in the next hour or so. wall street investors getting concerned on the debt debate in washington. a report from credit suisse says u.s. stocks could stumble 30% the next six months to a year if the debt ceiling not raised in time and the u.s. defaults on its obligation. top ceos sent a letter to president obama and congress yesterday urging swift action this week on the nation's debt ceiling talks. or face grave consequences in the u.s. economy. today, treasury department officials are telling cnn that executives from 20 major banks will meet with treasury officials in new york. top the agenda? the debt ceiling and potential fallout if a deal is not reached in time. the meeting is scheduled to take place sometime today at new york federal reserve, the building there in manhattan. right now u.s. stock futures trading lower ahead of the opening bell. stocks down for five days. investors waiting for news from washington on the debt ceiling debate as the gdp numbers come out in a little more than four

minutes. "american morning" is back after the break. oh, we call it the bundler. let's say you need home and auto insurance. you give us your information once, online... [ whirring and beeping ] [ ding! ] and we give you a discount on both. sort of like two in one. how did you guys think of that? it just came to us. what? bundling and saving made easy. now, that's progressive. call or click today.

a pretty shot of new york city this morning. 72 degrees as we look at the trees in central park and central park south this morning. later we are looking at a high of 89 but some thunderstorms in the forecast. 29 minutes past the hour. top stories. on capitol hill speaker john boehner will try to muster enough votes to pass his plan. last night's vote on the floor was called off because the speaker was not able to convince another hard-line conservatives to back the plan. earlier i spoke with david gergen. i asked him about the finger-pointing that is taking place in washington right now. >> they are talking about this leadership vacuum on both sides. who do you think is right? >> well, i think it's time to

stop the damn blame game and get serious and get the problem solved. people can go back to their sand boxes when this is over and they should go home. at the moment, stop pointing fingers at each other. now getting it from the tea party. america is disgusted with this and so is the world. time to stop pointing the finger and sit down and work this thing out. we don't have many more hours left. >> the complaint against boeing. it was also the -- >> we spoke to one of the few republican holdouts when it comes to the house speaker's plan. congressman trey gowdy. he says he predicts the house will approve boehner's debt plan today. a terror plot targeting soldiers at ft. hood texas has been foiled. police arrested naser abdo who allegedly planned to kill soldiers outside of the base. two years ago a fellow armyman killed 13 soldiers there. tropical storm don is on its

way and expected to make landfall around midnight with 55-mile-an-hour winds. heavy rain is needed, though. most of the state of texas dealing right now with a severe drought. ali? >>. debt ceiling deadline is days away. house speaker boehner today will try to coax republican holdouts to back his plan but some are not going to budge. >> joining us live from washington is steven moore, the senior economics wrirp fter fore wall street journal" editorial page. you understand the political philosophy driving the freshmen who don't want to concede anything. what does house speaker john boehner need to do to get their support? >> well, you know, christine, he has an insurrection on his hands. he didn't have the votes last night to get this passed. as you said it was the conservative house, many of them, the freshmen, who are

elected by tea party people who basically, said we can't go along with this deal and they are holding out for more spending cuts. i do expect some time today, we will get this through the house but you know what? this could go late. this could go until midnight again. they are not going to hold the vote until they have all of the votes lined up and right now they are about seven or eight short. >> you are philosophically aligned with some of these physically conservative members who feel this is the only chance we have got to get spending under control and to not have taxes drive this. >> right. >> bottom line, for a guy like you, you and i and christine has been talking for years. fiscal conservatives have gotten more out of this deal than they wouldn't have -- >> 4 trillion in cuts. >> what do you say to your fellow physical conservatives this is a pretty good win? >> that's we said in the editorial page of "wall street journal."

this isn't a deal we love but at some point, we have to get this done. i think just for republicans, right now is maybe a time to take the high road and say we got the best deal we could, you know, we're not happy with this. by the way, i do think we are going to get this done before august 2nd. it might be one hour before the stroke of midnight but nobody is going to be really happy with this outcome and as you just heard, a lot of people are just so disgusted with this all over the country. so i'm of the opinion right now, get this thing done, nobody is going to than completely happy with the outcome. and i'll say one other thing. even if we go past august 2nd, i want to make this point clear and i've made this on your show many times. there isn't going to be a default. i get so annoyed a gault on the get. that won't happen. we have the money to pay the bondholders. >> we will pay our bondholders. i don't think any question that is going to happen but when we start not paying our other obligations that our creditors, right? the rating agency look at us and say, okay, is that a

technical -- >> s&p has said that and ben bernanke has said that. >> in my opinion, this is -- if we go past august 2, only go one or two days past august 2nd. the truth is right now, ali, the two sides are really not that far apart right now. if you look at the boehner plan versus the plan harry reid has put forward in the senate, they are actually pretty close. and the one area where i think republicans have had a victory on this is that taxes, right now, are off the table. >> steven, i want you to sort of use this moment since you are aligned with the people who are holding this back to tell them -- because many of them are not believing us or anyone else that there are ramifications in global markets if we don't raise the debt ceiling. could you try to tell them here in this venue what happens if we don't raise the debt ceiling, what message that sends to capital markets and securities markets around the world? >> i don't think it's the ends of the world. here is my opinion on this. i think a bigger danger right

now that you all and the press are not focusing enough on if we do get a debt deal done and the financial markets say this isn't serious, this isn't a serious plan to deal with the debt, that could also spark a financial crisis because people then say the american political system is not capable of dealing with -- do you know what i mean? ali, you got to admit that is a risk-to- >> sure, but let's clarify for our viewers. something you understand and not getting clear from a lot of these congressional republicans who keep on saying we are likely to get a downgrade anyway. the downgrade we may get because we have been unable to deal with this is a small downgrade from aaa. the downgrade you get by defaulting on a loan -- we all agree we're not likely to go down that road -- a very different kind of downgrade. that is a serious one. >> i think both scenarios are serious, quite frankly. my preferred solution is to get the biggest cuts in spending that we can with enforceable caps and whether we get there or not -- look. we get 2 trillion or $3 trillion

savings over ten years is a start but the next ten years we will spend $40 trillion. we have a big debt crisis on our hand and this is only the first step. once we get this resolved then we will be talking about the spending bills that come down in september. so this is like groundhad gone's day, right? this debate over the budget never seems to end. >> that movie was funny. this isn't funny. >> exactly. this is serious. >> do you think this balanced budget thing has legs? >> look. i think the republicans are going to continue to run that as far as they can. but right now there is not 67 voters in the united states senate. but about 67% of americans think this debt is so big maybe it's time for the balanced budget. i think on that issue, it's a bad idea whose time maybe has finally come. >> well said. stephen moore, thanks so much. good to see you. >> thanks. >> he heads the economics side of the "wall street journal" editorial page and former head

of the club for growth, stephen moore. ahead on "american morning," is it possible to have a tech-free vacation? i don't know. no blackberry, no laptop with you. >> no, it's not! it's not possible! >> we're not talking about you, ali. we will find out how you disconnect -- >> don't do it! >> 37 minutes past the hour. rep. its retinol formula smoothes wrinkles in just one week. why wait if you don't have to. neutrogena®.

in. it looks like it's not great. okay. the economy grew slower rate than expected in the second quarter. gdp the sum of all the economy produces, 1.3%. >> that is the growth in what we produce. >> it's the first quarter that we are looking at here. looks like a revision of the first quarter. the first three months of the year, the economy only grew at 0.4%. >> 0.4 of a% is much lower than we thought. a healthier economy is growing at 3% or more. just to compare it for you, what was china's growth? >> 10%. 8% to 10% or something. >> so this is very, very low and it's not enough to create the jobs that we need in order to really get a sustained recovery.

for all of the efforts we are going through to change the recovery, we have seen job growth slow down in the first few months of this year. this is another sort of contributing factor that suggests things are slowing down. >> of course, emerging economies will grow faster because they have -- >> of course, they will. sure. >> they have a lower bar. >> i'm not meaning to suggest we should be growing the way china is. a lot of problems growing that quickly. the issue here is that we are growing slowly. we expected to in the second quarter. we were not expecting the first quarter to be that low. >> so you're saying when they revise those numbers, we thought we were growing probably double the pace we were? >> the narrative we thought things were slowing in the second quarter. what happened is things are much worse in the first quarter and got better in the second quarter. economists who have been trying to get a gauge on the economy missed it again. >> it's hard to tell exactly what is going on. bottom line, the gdp -- >> see how it affects futures and stock market trading today. >> we have been down 450 points

the last five days. >> dow down 66 points and see if it has any effect at all. in the meantime, we have to get a break. perfect segueway! >> if you're away on vacation you're not really because you bring your laptop and you bring your phones and pdas and on and on and on. if you're sitting at the beach your version of relaxing is reading from your ereader. according to a poll, 35% admitted to checking their e-mails. 2% said they checked their voicemail. 22% occasionally took those calls after checking their voicemail and realizing people were calling them. joining us for tips on a tech-free vacation is mike orwall. thanks for being bus this morning. >> what are we achieving here? mark will tell us how to go away and not check your stuff or go

away and be fully wired? >> how to go away and not check your stuff. >> some resorts take the decision-making out of your hands. >> absolutely. >> tell us about that. >> health oriented resorts are doing this. a place in california ranch of live oaks. a beautiful place. there is no red meat. no sugar. no watches. no alcohol. >> wait! what does red meat have to do with being wired? >> no eiphones and for blackberries. you'll pay a lot of money to do this too. we sent a writer this who smuggled in her cell phone and she was out on a nature walk. the cell phone went off! she is surrounded! it was bad, it was bad. so you go to a place where you're actually encouraged to disconnect. >> what is the result from that? how does it help? what do people say? >> we know we work too much. in this country we get less vacation than almost anywhere else in the world and not paying attention to the things that are

important to us and why is that? because we're looking at the stupid blackberry in our hand and talking to people in the office when we should be lying on the ground and reading a book and talking to the family. >> i'm biting my nails, i'm so nervous about the can conversation. tell us about the detox. you can say i want a few days of peace. >> some people call this a hotel trend. i don't know if i'd go that far. the fairmont hotel group started this in 2008. you would check your cell phone, your blackberry and lock it up behind the desk and you sign a pledge not to use it. another hotel, browton hotels in chicago and california, they do what is called digital detox and had this earlier this year. you get a little lockbox and put your stuff in the lockbox and get it to them and you get a 30% discount on your rate. they are helping you along. >> you can also go places where the connectivity is slow and doesn't exist. no wi-fi.

>> it's harder to do that. you might go to the north pole or the wild of alaska. >> or travel on the west side highway because it's possible to get cell service. >> you have to change carriers. >> a place in alaska that is a high-end sort of adventure resort. you're out there and hiking the. >> i prefer a gps to call the authorities when i get lost. >> when you talk about being able to go on vacation, you're right. a lot of people aren't on vacation any more in terms of their mind. i remember when you used to have a buy a phone card? remember? you'd walk to the pay phone at the resort because you didn't want to pay the roaming fees! >> i think we forget how there were those periods in our existence where we could chill out. i mean, airplanes, for example. >> right. >> that was always -- it has been. in fact, in the states, most of it still is, enforced electronic abstinence i like to call it. you sort of just get yourself in

a cocoon where those electronic rays can't penetrate and it's very, very calming, reassuring. that is changing, though. asia, you can pick up a cell phone and make a call. europe dropped its ban on cell phones in 2007. >> haven't you e-mailed and called us before? >> you can get wi-fi on a lot of airlines now. i think only a matter of time, unfortunately, before cell phone use on flights in the u.s. is going to be permitted. the last bastion of electronic freedom from electronics, i should say, is probably poised to be extinct. >> when i get e-mails that say people are on vacation, they can't respond, i think you're being lazy, you can't do it? i sometimes get these out of office replies saying i'm in a place that doesn't have cell phone. >> quick story. took my family to walt disney world. the friday before i left my blackberry died and only connection to my work e-mail. i went to our tech guys. we can get you a new one. it never worked. i was down in orlando.

having a great time. could not get a single e-mail. i have to admit the first couple of days i was a little shaky! >> when you came back what did you find? >> there was not a single crisis that happened that couldn't have been handled by somebody else in my absence. i don't know what that says about my job! >> mark, good to see you. >> all right, guys. >> 47 minutes after the hour. check the top stories and markets straight ahead. ...was it something big? ...or something small? ...something old? ...or something new? ...or maybe, just maybe... it's something you haven't seen yet. the 2nd generation of intel core processors. stunning visuals, intelligent performance. this is visibly smart. handle more than 165 billion letters and packages a year.

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defense department trying to figure out what caused an f-16 fighter jet to skid off a runway and crash yesterday. it happened in an air field in wisconsin. the rough landing was caught on tape. witnesses say they were watching fighter jets coming in for landings all morning but this one looked different as it approached. >> i just saw the one previous, you know, tax taxi through going pretty slow. he came past so fast i thought, oh, no, this is not going to be

good. >> the pilot able to walk away from the wreck unhurt thankfully. makers of tylenol reducing the maximum daily dosage of the pain reliever and want to reduce the risk of overdose. labels of extra strength tylenol packages will list the maximum daily dose as six pills, down from eight. lower the daily dose on tylenol and others containing acetaminophen in 2012. who says there is no crying in baseball? one young fan's memorable moment when we come back.

boehner's plan to raise the debt ceiling and cut spending could come up for a vote today. republicans called off the vote last night after it was clear not enough support for the bill. police uncovered another terror plot that would have targeted soldiers at ft. hood in texas. they have arrested naser abdo, awol army private who willing allegedly was planning to kill fellow soldiers outside of the base. investigators say it was pilot error that contributed to last year's plane crash in russia that killed pole land's president. refusing instructions from russian air traffic controllers, as well as bad weather also blamed for that. desperate for rain in drought-stricken texas. tropical storm don perhaps could be about to deliver. the storm is expected to make landfall in south texas around midnight, bringing several inches of rain. don's top winds are close to 60 miles per hour. just a quick note right now. we are getting some new numbers

in from the gdp, economic growth according to cnn money. in the second quarter tepid, growth in the first quarter was slower than they initially thought. they say gdp which is the broadest measure of the nation's economic growth rose 1.3% in the second quarter. according to the commerce department. we will have much more analysis from that from ali and christine. we will be right back with today's headlines. what do you got? restrained driver...

sir, can you hear me? just hold the bag. we need a portable x-ray, please!

[ nurse ] i'm a nurse. i believe in the power of science and medicine. but i'm also human. and i believe in stacking the deck. when i go through suburbia america, where the small towns, everybody is trying to hold their head up for pride. you've been looking for work? i know it's tough in a recession. >> i went and sold all of my

jewelry yesterday. >> these people, behind closed doors, they tell their neighbors they are fine. they would as soon go in the house and starve. how much do you owe right now? >> the gas bill i owe about $800. >> i find the situation getting worse. they need food and help with the utilities. this is 2011 in america? we should be helping each other. i'm sal dimiceli and my mission is help americans who have fallen on hard times. in a week, i will receive 20 to 30 letters. i want to verify it's genuine and i want to get to them as quickly as possible. i know right now, it's tough for everybody. we will will be here for you and we will help you out. i tell them how i grew up in poverty and how i understand. here's a hundred dollars for gas. i help people with necessities of daily life and, at the same time, i get them together to do a budget so they can continue to

survive. i brought this for you so you can go get your wedding band back. i want them to feel free with their pain. >> we are so happy. thank you! >> i want them to feel the compassion that we are trying to share with them, to wrap our arms around them and say, come on, i have a little extra strength i want to share with you and let's get you back on your feet. >> we are going to leave you this morning with a touching moment from yesterday's red sox/royals game. check out josh beckett, taking time out to give a young fan in the first row a baseball. talk about making a kid's day. that little guy was so overjoyed, he couldn't stop crying! a ball game with dad and a souvenir ball from a baseball pitcher. what a great day! >> how cute. friends of him do not make fun of him, okay? no shame in crying! >> nothing wrong with crying, right, kiran? >> absolutely. i'm not going to cry.

i want to tell you guys today is my last day here at cnn. it's going to be my last day on "american morning." before i leave, i wanted to thank everyone, all of out there for letting me into your living rooms the past near nearly five years. i have to say you have to truly love what you do to leap our bed before 3:00 a.m. every morning and that has been the case for me. i feel lucky to have been able to work with kind, dedicated people here at cnn. i always marvel at our ability to work really hard. arguing and working hard. look at my buddies! can we take that shot again, please? these people come in before midnight day after day after day. we work hard to get it right. through it all we have found a way to laugh and enjoy our work. so i'm terrible at good-byes. i'm not going to say good-bye. i will say see you soon. to both of of you, it's been a pleasure. >> to you again. >> ali? >> thanks. >> thanks, guys! >> i'm going to break it up here. we are going back to that shot,